Tag: SEO

Get the Most Out of Your EZLynx Agency Website

Posted on by Sara Button

Having an aesthetically pleasing website that also encompasses local SEO and fresh content is a must in the insurance industry.  Not just any old website will do, either. Your customers need to be able to recognize and find your business easily without navigating through a bunch of clutter. Our team at EZLynx takes it a step further with Agency Website packages and post-launch website management assistance.

Our packages range from having a good starter website with up to 5 pages, all the way to having up to 15 locally optimized pages with unique monthly blog content and so much more. You can choose which package is best for you and work with an EZLynx associate to complete basic information that will be incorporated in to your website.

There are numerous benefits included in our premium Gold Website package, and some of those may fly under the radar if you’re not 100% familiar with our offerings. Below we’ve highlighted some of our favorite features available through the Gold Website package.

Friendly associates

EZLynx is dedicated to making sure that your experience is seamless. We have friendly and knowledgeable associates who will be there to help you every step of the way. A website associate will get in contact with you after your sale is completed by a sales representative, and will be there to answer any questions you may have before and after your site has been launched.

Post-launch website assistance

After your website launches, a website analyst will reach out to you. Your website analyst is your post-launch website contact. They will be able to answer any questions you have regarding your website and will also be able to assist you with any changes you need to make. Five hours’ worth of updates per quarter are budgeted in to your package just in case you want to update your site, add a new page, or change your address.

Monthly blog content

Each new EZLynx Gold Website includes one unique blog article per month that is added directly to your Insurance Blog. If one blog per month isn’t up to your speed, we can provide you with your blog login information and instructions on how to post your own blog content.

AgentInsure exclusive listing

AgentInsure is an online quoting website owned by EZLynx. The website was created to bring you the convenience of the internet along with the security and free consultation of an insurance agent. We enlist all of our Gold Website agencies through AgentInsure to help generate additional leads.

Multilingual websites

With the EZLynx Gold Website package you have the option of having Google Translate installed on your website, allowing persons who speak any language to easily navigate your website. Additionally, we offer a Spanish Consumer Quoting rating engine that, while not included, can be purchased separately.

EZLynx Social & Local Reach

EZLynx Social Reach & EZLynx Local Reach are two completely different but absolutely important benefits in purchasing a Gold Website package. EZLynx Social Reach places your website in front of potential customers on Facebook, creating local brand awareness for your agency. EZLynx Local Reach is an online local listing program that helps generate additional relevant traffic to your website.

Optimized content for local search

Every paragraph on your website has been carefully looked over and optimized to have a better chance of being pulled in local search result queries. Additionally, each page on your website is equip with metadata information (that is not visible on your website itself, but on the backend) that helps guide the internet in to knowing more about your website, for a greater change of it being pulled in local search. Monthly blog articles are also written from a locally optimized perspective.

Mobile friendly

Have you ever visited a website from your mobile device that just didn’t look right? Maybe the images were too big or the text was too small. We’ve got that covered. Every EZLynx Agency Website is developed with a responsive feature unique to the device it is being used on, whether that is a phone, tablet, or computer.

Content management system

Some customers want to have the option to do it themselves, and our Content Management System allows them to do just that. Although not every component is editable from our Content Management System, if you have an address to change or a photo to add you can make those changes quickly and efficiently through this application without having to get an EZLynx associate involved.

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Practical Online Strategies for Independent Insurance Agents

Posted on by Riley Simmons
If you’re not a billion dollar company in our industry, your website is quite simply not going to come up first in the search results on a national basis for those coveted generic search terms like “auto quote” or “car insurance”. With that said, ignoring the online marketplace is not an option anymore. Even for those of you that are all about personal relationships and word of mouth (which is not a bad thing), there is now an expectation by consumers that all businesses have at least some kind of online presence. If nothing else, it has become an indicator of legitimacy – a consumer may not trust a business that doesn’t have a website. Thus the question becomes, how does a small business compete with the likes of Geico, Progressive, and Esurance when it comes to the online realm? An initial step in planning your online strategy should be to take note of the unique advantages of an independent agent. You’re local, you’re accessible, you’re informed, and you can provide a competitive advantage over a single direct writer in your ability to quote with several other carriers. Take these advantages and craft a practical search engine optimization and digital marketing strategy that can yield slow and steady gains for your agency online.

Step 1: Embrace Local

It’s already a major advantage for an independent agent, so the fact that Google is expending a lot of resources to include, and even favor, local listings in their search results plays right into your hands. Don’t forget that an effective online strategy is more than SEO. SEO will ensure that your website is built in a way that search engines can understand, and there are certain methods that a savvy website company can take advantage of to give you a little boost, but for the modern consumer it goes so far beyond traditional Google search results now. Just one example is location-based search. Consumers will think of things they need to do while they are already out and about. And what do we do? We whip out our smartphones and do a search for a nearby location that sells, as an example right off the top of my head, insurance. It’s not just a map of nearby locations anymore either – that was so 5 years ago. It now includes reviews, links, company details, and more. If you’re focused on the online market, you absolutely want to be included in the results for these kinds of searches. This means having your location consistently identified across countless online directory services. You should already have a social media presence for your agency, so you’ll also need to make sure your social media pages very clearly and accurately reference your location. Most consumers gain confidence by reading the opinions of their peers.  Encourage happy customers to give you a testimonial on your Google business listing.

Step 2: Be Accessible

Make it ridiculously easy for consumers to contact your agency. This means having contact forms on your website, quote forms, and your phone number on every page. If they are already your customer, it means providing easy ways to request changes, contact you with a quick question, and even access common documents like proof of insurance. Lastly, this means communicating with consumers in the way they prefer to communicate. From email to texting, if it can be used to communicate, chances are you will come across a consumer that wants to use it to talk to you. You can’t be accessible if you aren’t embracing mobile. The latest reporting continues to show that mobile usage for day-to-day web browsing is rapidly increasing. Your website, your consumer quoting portal, and your online customer service features should all be fully mobile-optimized. However, don’t fall into the trap of thinking your agency needs to have a mobile app. An app has to be installed from the app store of the device you are using, which is a huge deterrent in getting consumers to use it. More importantly, mobile apps don’t come up in search results on Google. Instead, focus on making sure your website can provide a positive user experience when being accessed from a mobile device.  Many websites, such as those created by EZLynx, can adjust automatically depending on the visitor’s screen size for a complete mobile-friendly experience. Paired with mobile-ready quoting and servicing solutions like EZLynx Consumer Quoting and Client Center, you’ll be ready to both quote and service consumers on any device.

Step 3: Share Your Knowledge

The internet is about communication. Websites, Google+, Facebook, and Twitter all have the sole purpose of making it easier and more fun to communicate with each other. Once upon a time, if someone had a question about insurance they would pick up the phone and call an insurance agent. While that does still happen, it has become a last resort for most people now. Whether they are asking the question on Twitter or doing a quick Google search, the first stop for most of us is the internet. Unless you’re actively working to make yourself available online, those consumers just found their answer from someone else. Be that someone else by watching and responding to insurance questions that are posted online. Make your website a repository of insurance knowledge by writing content that answers insurance questions. If nothing else, this will help establish trust between yourself and the reader by giving them unbiased answers to their questions. This is important if you hope to win the business of someone that has to choose between a highly recognized brand or a local insurance agent that doesn’t happen to have the budget to run yearly super bowl commercials like the other guys. This also has the added benefit of increasing the likelihood your website will be returned in search results. You may never attain a nationwide front page ranking for generalized search terms like “car insurance quotes” simply because of the sheer volume of websites out there trying to target those same terms. You are better off working to claim a top spot in search results for more specific questions and topics that you can share your expert opinion on.

Step 4: Ask for Help

All of these things are easy to do with our help. With everything required to manage the day to day responsibilities of an insurance agency, there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to accomplish all of this. EZLynx Agency Websites is our insurance-centric solution to the online marketplace for our agents. However, no matter how you go about establishing your online presence, always approach it from the point of view of the consumer, and you can’t go wrong! Find out how we can help!

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Bringing In New Clients With EZLynx Agency Websites

Posted on by EZLynx

In an age of digital marketing and search engine optimization, insurance agencies need cutting-edge features, websites and informative solutions to reach a wide audience and bring in new customers. Although professionals working in agencies understand that SEO is an important part of improving the ability to reach new clients, it is not a simple process to create a website that appeals to a wide audience and is optimized for the web. That’s where EZLynx Agency Websites comes in.

How EZLynx Agency Websites Works

EZLynx Agency Websites are used in conjunction with a full agency suite of services that help a company manage customer data, keep track of options and provide quotes. The websites are designed around the needs of an insurance agency to bring in more web traffic and make the site easier to find.

  • EZLynx will build the website for the agency with professional search engine optimization so that the company is easy to find.
  • After the website is built and prepared, it is then hosted by EZLynx and will work seamlessly with the customer quoting and client center provided by EZLynx.

Improving Client Experiences through Online Optimization

The success of insurance agencies hinges on maintaining consistent customer satisfaction and providing the tools a client might want when looking for coverage, adding to a plan or keeping track of current insurance. With EZLynx Agency Websites, the full suite of services will work in conjunction with the basic website design to help the insurance agency manage client information more efficiently.

The services will allow insurance agencies to access the rating system, management system and marketing services. By keeping the services in one place, an insurance agency is able to provide superior support to clients.

Keeping Up with Growth

Marketing requires several different tactics and strategies. Inbound marketing, or making a website that is easy to find when potential clients are looking for specific information, is a simple way to improve the growth of the company. The professional SEO services provided when a website is designed by EZLynx will increase the ability to reach out to the target audience. When used with the maintenance tools provided by EZLynx that are available in the suite, an insurance agency can keep track of growth, make changes to the company when it is necessary and ensure that every customer is getting the best services available.

Improving the customer experience with online tools is the best way to encourage growth and professionalism in an insurance agency. As more customers look for information over the Internet, incorporating inbound marketing strategies will provide opportunities for growth. A business is able to exceed the expectations of customers with a well-planned website design.

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EZLynx Agency Websites: Understanding SEO

Posted on by Riley Simmons

EZLynx NewsLynx - September 2012SEO has become a buzzword for anyone that is looking to make their website a key component in the success of their business.  And for the insurance industry, a website has quickly become a non-optional element of success, in large part because of the consumer expectations for 24/7 on-demand access to sales and service that has been nurtured in the insurance industry by the likes of Geico, Progressive, Esurance, and others.  Now that this Pandora’s Box has been opened, there is no going back.

Consumer Shopping TrendsDespite the problems the transition to online shopping has created for some businesses, the internet has opened up more ways for a business to reach a potential customer than would ever have been possible with a brick and mortar storefront alone.

Search ResultsThe difficulty of tapping into that online marketplace is in the ongoing time commitment, and independent agents are simply too busy. When you run a quick search and find that perfect match on the first page of the results, there is much that happened behind the scenes that led to those particular sites being listed first.  Specifically, it was the efforts of the search engine in working to understand both the motivations of the searcher and the relevance of the websites in its index.

Understanding why those specific websites came up first, and figuring out how to have your site be among those chosen few, has sprung up an entire industry devoted to nothing else but to what is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

EZLynx understood the need that independent agents had in providing their prospects and customers with a rich online experience in order to remain competitive with the big direct writers, as well as keeping up with consumer online shopping trends in general.

EZLynx Customer ServiceOur consumer quoting and customer service portals were already best suited for being directly embedded on a website, so it was a small step for us to begin offering several agency website options to meet these very specific independent agency needs.

If you’re an independent agent, you have no doubt had to wade through an SEO marketing onslaught.  You will have heard about a hundred different “must do” things in order to have a successful website, all of which sound great in theory. In the doing, however, it becomes much more complicated when you also have an agency to run – that’s where EZLynx can help streamline your agency and increase your online presence.

Actual EZLynx Agency Website DataEZLynx has slowly grown our Agency Website team over the past few years, and our SEO strategy has remained consistent and proven: add value and convenience for the readers of your website.  We do this in ways that would be unrealistic and unsustainable for an agent trying to also handle the general day to day operations of running a small business.  Most notably, we use our insurance industry knowledge to speak the search engine’s language—content.  The search engines don’t see your beautifully designed website; all they see is the text content on your site. More specifically, they seek to determine how relevant your content is and how frequently it is updated.

EZLynx Agency Websites, as part of our Agency Suites, are the perfect agency-in-a-box solution for independent agents, providing websites built using SEO best practices that come with our powerful products fully integrated.

Consumers will experience a seamless experience—from information gathering, live quoting, to on-demand customer service.  For our advanced websites, we take SEO one step further by providing completely unique, relevant, and locally-focused content on a regular basis that feeds the search engines need to provide timely and relevant information to their users.  The online shopper today does their research first, so having a blog that is full of useful, informative, and unique insurance articles will bring in these savvy shoppers that are unwilling to give their business until they have the facts.

EZLynx Website OptimizationWe also work with you as partners, having meetings each quarter to review the overall performance of the website and to brainstorm ideas to continually improve the value of your website for the consumer.

The business of being a Search Engine is to ensure that the search results provided are relevant, timely, and useful.  When the goals of your website are in line with the goals of the search engines, slow and steady wins the race.

For more information on EZLynx Agency Websites, please contact [email protected] or call (877) 932-2382.

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